The US launched a wave of strikes against Iran for the sixth night in a row, its military said, as the two sides battled over control of the Strait of Hormuz.

US Central Command (Centcom) said the attacks were intended to “further degrade Iranian military capabilities”, before saying it had boarded a vessel as part of its blockade of Iranian ports.

State media reported that the US had hit civilian infrastructure, including bridges, a train station and an airport. The BBC has verified an attack on one bridge to the west of Bandar Abbas in Hormozgan province.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) say they have retaliated by striking US maritime surveillance radar sites in Oman as well as targets in Kuwait and Bahrain. They also claim to have attacked a US special operations command centre in Syria.

The IRGC said the surprise attack at al-Tanf in Syria, near the border with Jordan, was in retaliation for the killing of Iranian soldiers two days ago. Neither Syria nor the US have commented on the claim.

Later on Friday, Jordan’s military said it shot down three Iranian missiles with no casualties or damage reported.

Meanwhile in Iraqi Kurdistan, eight people were killed and several injured in the city of Sulaymaniyah in the early morning, according to Kurdish news agency Rudaw and Agence France Press news agency. Kurdish forces blamed the attack on Iran.

Separately, Kuridsh forces said eight drones were also shot down over the city of Erbil, with no casualties reported.

As attacks escalate, the Strait of Hormuz – a critical waterway off Iran’s coast that Tehran effectively blocked in response to US-Israeli strikes – has remained shut.

That has impacted the flow of oil from the region and the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, says he has concerns about global energy supplies.

“We should be worried, and I am worried, if the situation does not improve in the next few weeks,” Birol said on Thursday night.

On Friday the Chinese and Pakistani foreign ministers called for the US and Iran to stop fighting and resume negotiations.

The US overnight strikes also hit close to the island of Qeshm as well as in the southern coastal cities of Bandar Abbas and Bushehr – the site of a nuclear power plant.

Centcom did not mention bridges in its list of the “dozens of Iranian military targets” it hit in the latest round of strikes. It said jets, drones and ships had attacked “coastal surveillance and air defense sites, military logistics infrastructure, and maritime capabilities”. The BBC has asked Centcom for comment.

Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump threatened to strike Iran’s bridges and power plants if the country did not return to talks.

After Trump said in April that the US would bomb civilian infrastructure in Iran, including bridges and power plants, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said “deliberately attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure is a war crime”.

Iranian state media said Washington targeted Iranshahr Airport in southeastern Iran, a railway station in coastal Bandar Khamir as well as five bridges in the port city.

Seven people were killed in the strikes, state news agency IRNA reported.

At least 38 people have been killed and more than 400 injured in the country since fighting resumed with the US, Iran’s health ministry said.

Centcom also said marines had boarded an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman as part of the renewed US blockade of Iran’s ports that began on Tuesday night.

It added it had “redirected 3 commercial vessels trying to run the blockade”.

On Friday the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported a tanker had been hit by an unknown projectile on Thursday while sailing near Khasab in Oman. All crew members were reported safe.

According to Centcom, US forces disabled nine ships and redirected more than 140 under its previous blockade of Iranian ports between 13 April to 18 June.

As the renewed hostilities further strained the preliminary deal to end the war, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that Trump remained open to talks with Iran.

“The president will hold them accountable when they turn their back on the words that they state to the United States. But he is always open to diplomacy at the very same time,” she told reporters.

She said Iran has expressed it still wants to make a deal with the US, adding: “We’re talking to them, but again, the president is not going to allow them to fire on ships in the strait without paying a consequence for that.”

Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on Wednesday that Tehran had “no reason” to abide by any agreement that did not benefit the country.

He added that Iran’s national security depended on maintaining what he described as “Iranian arrangements” in the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, Trump on Wednesday praised Iran for freeing Dena Karari, a US detainee that he said had been “wrongfully detained” in December 2024.

“The United States of America appreciates this gesture of Goodwill by Iran!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Karari’s attorney Jared Genser said she was on her way back to the US.

However, Iran’s judiciary on Thursday said that no US prisoner had been released or exchanged from its prisons, Iranian state media reported.